The New Zealand foreign affairs minister, Murray McCully, has launched the secondary school fee grant scheme at Alofi O Taoa School on Savai'i, Samoa.
Mr McCully says removing the burden of school fees from families will ensure more children can access secondary education.
He says the scheme aims to deliver fee-free education to children in year nine to 11 in government schools, reduce the fees for children in mission schools and provide grants to help improve teaching materials.
Nearly four million US dollars is allocated to the programme which aims to increase secondary school enrolments from about 70 per cent to 85 per cent by 2016.
